Means for building or composing designs of flags or other emblems



Dc; 6 1927.l 1,652,152

I i H. w.,B1BL.E

MEANS @6R BULDNG sfne' DEsrGNs. oF FLAGs v0R OTHER Erasmus Filed oct. 1'?. 1Q?? `e l i 4l 3 354- %3 attozmw Patented Dec. 6, 1927.A

' HOWARD w. BIBLE, or iicrtarrfrrc orrY', New JERSEY. l

Ixus ronnurnnrne on czoisrrrosiireiinsleias or FLAGs'onf OTHER Vmanantiales.

s v Application fuad october 17, 1927, serial No.

r This invention relatesrt-otoys and more particularly hasl reference to'l a set of blocks. yBlocks have beenj provided heretofore which may be assembledto form flags,'and

. 16 in some instances. the sameset' of blocksk have been capable of forming'several dif-V ferent. flags. None of the blocksvheretofore provided, however,r have,been capable of form-ing all of thek national emblems of the l Uni-ted States; 4 g

. An object.y of this invention is to provide an educational toy. Another object of this invention is to providea set of blocks adapted to be assembled llto'formfaflag. u l" Yet another object of this invention 'is to provide` a set of blocks that are capable of forming the national emblem of the. United States at any time inthe history 0f the coun- 50. try.

To,- accomplish the above and other importantk objects as will appear herein, my invention in general comprises a set of blocks having indicia on their faces', the blocks being of various sizes and susceptible of different arrangements. y f

To insure a more complete comprehension of my invention, reference is made tothe accompanying drawings, in which similar nuu meralsindicate the same parts, it being distinctly understood, however, that various modifications may be kmade in the embodiment therein set forth, without exceeding the scope of my invention. j Iiil Figure 1r is a vrview in perspective of the blocks,V assembled to form. ank early American flag Fig. 2 is a view in perspective of ,blocks assembledv to form the American flag of f today.

Referring more particularly Lto lFigure 1, there are shown a series of rectangular parallelepipeds 1. It will be observed that these blocks are of two different lengths, 1a being a block for positioning opposite the canton or field 2 of the flag.` Blocks 1b are positioned in the lower portion of the ag and extend the length of the flag. These blocks are adapted to form stripes, and may be l 50. colored, if desired. In blocks for forming the American flag the blocks 1 should be alternately red and white. While I have' shown herein blocks assemloled to represent the American flag, it is of courseV understood that they may be employed for the purpose of forming other standards. The blocks 1 226,309, and -in Great aritaia :una io, i926.'

maybe colored redfonV two Afaces and white on the other faces, mayy he colored the same throughout, or may `have different' colorsr on each oftheir rectangularfaces.y of the flag,

The blocks 1 represent the bars and the cantonis formed by blocks 3 and 4.l

Itwi'll loe-observed that the blocks 4 are half the size; of therblocks 3, so that whentwo of ythehlocks 4 are positionedadjaeent veach other they occupy thesame; space as one of the blocks 3'. .It is preferable thattheblocks 3v be cubes, and the blocks-:4 half cubes. In the case ofthe American flag, each block 3 Y, may be colored blue, with a white star 5 appearing on one face., The number-of faces be varied', but at least one face ofv the cube should bev plain blue. The blocks 4 may be vcolored blue.

In Figure 1 there is shown a set up of the blocks by which an early American flag-is l' In Fig. 2, the blocksiar'e arranged ,tol

Yon which stars or otherindicia appear may r they present American ag with fortyeight Y' y stars in the canton.` It will be observed that the blocks l4 are not required in this Hag.'

From the foregoing `'the operation and manipulation of` the blocks are obvious. To form the American flag the blocks 1a` and 1" are arranged in close contactwi'th each other, the blocks 1a at the topv andy the blocks 1* be@ low. The blocksV should be positioned so as to alternate in yred and white tofform the stripes of the American` flag. The ends 'of all'of the blocksare aligned on the rioht so. that a .space remains in the upper lefl; corner for the formation of the canton. The stripes Vof the flag will remain the same regardless of the particular American flag desired to be formed, except in the case 'of the Star Spangled YBanner of 1814 which has fifteen stripes. a

If it is desired to form the present American flag, forty-eight Vofthe cubes Siare positioned in the canton space, with the stars on the Vblocks exposed. All of the stars will be aligned both vertically and horizontally.

As shown in Figure 1', an early American flag may be formed with twelve stars arranged in a circle and a single star in the center. It will be observed that the blocks 4 may be positioned in the canton either with their greatest thickness in a vertical plane as shown by 4, or their greatest thickness may be in a horizontal plane as shown by 4J. In this Way any one of the cubes 3 as cube 3, for instance, may be positioned above or below the general horizontal alignment ofthe other cubes, or they may be in diii'erent alignment vertically as shown by cube 3*. `The blocks are not restricted to the formation of only the two ilags shown. The canton may be formed to depict the American flag at any time in its evolution. For instance, when the Union `was composed of forty-six States, the second and fifth horizontal lines of the present flag con tained only seven stars. These seven stars were staggered with respect to the adjacent lines. My inventioncontemplates such an arrangement of the canton which may be ci fected by withdrawing one star each from the second and fifth lines. Assuming that the left-most stars in these lines are Withdrawn, the remaining stars in that line would then be moved to the left until they Were in a staggered relationship to the lines containing eight stars. Half cubes 4, having their plain blue faces exposed, would then bev inserted at each end of the seven star lines to completely fill the field.

It will thus be seen that an American flag containing` any number of stars may be formed. Should two stars be withdrawn :from anyline their places may be filled by two cubes 3 `with their plain faces exposed, but in the event of the Withdrawal of only one star. such a vacancy may be filled by two of the half cubes 4.

Inasmuch as the blocks 3 are cubes and have at least one plain blue face and one face with a star, each block is adapted to form either a part of" the blue field .of the canton or one of the stars. Thus, for eX- ample, forty-eight blocks 3 and a given number of half-cubes 4` are suicient to form any ofthe national flags of this country.

It will be appreciated that my invention provides a toy7 or game that is instructive as Well as amusing. By using these blocks a person acquires a familiarity with the `flag of the United States at any period in the history of the country. Not only does one know the number of States in the Union, and hence the number of stars in the flag, at any time, but the articular arrangement oi the stars withint 1e cantonalso becomes familiar. By means oi the various blocks employed an exact reproduction of` the American flag at any time may be secured, regardless ofthe period which isunder consideration.` It `Will be readily seen that my invention is of `particular utility in schools and for students ofhistory. i y

Although I have set forth in the drawinvs and havedescribed herein a set of bloc "s adapted for the formation of the American fiag, I Wish it to be distinctly understood that my invention is not limited by the flag to be constructed, for similar blocks may be provided that are adapted to form thefiag oi any nation. Nor are the colors orl articular shapes oi: the blocks herein described to constitute a limitation. The appended claims alone are to be taken as definitive of my invention. y 1

I claim as my invention: 1

l. An educational toy comprising red and white parallelepipeds,blue cubes having on only one face a White star, and blue half cubes. i i

2. `An educational toy comprising red and white parallelepipeds, cubeshaving` at least one plain blue iacc, a White star upon another ace of each cube, and half-cubes having at least one blue face.` ,y

3. An educational toy adapted toform the canton of the American flag ,comprising cubes, each cube having at least one plain blue face and at least one face with a star thereon, and halt-cubes having at least one plain blueface. i

4. An educational toy adapted to" form the ca nton of the American fing comprising a. series of blocks, meansby which each block is adapted to form either a portion of the blue field or a star, and other blocks half the sizeof the first-mentioned blocks having at least one blue face. y.

HOWARD 7. BIBLE. 

